In recent history, computers have become much more pervasive in society. In addition, they have become more powerful and faster, and have significantly more storage than they did just a few short years ago. These exponential increases in speed, storage and processor power have provided the necessary infrastructure for computers to network together effectively.
The most publicized computer network in existence is referred to as the Internet. The Internet is a connection of computers using the TCP/IP protocol. This has evolved into what is now referred to as the World-Wide Web which provides a somewhat cognitive interface into the Internet. The World-Wide Web allows users to access information by indicating the location of the information which they desire to retrieve or by traversing hyper-text links which cross-reference information in many different locations. This is made possible by the implementation of a universal resource locator (URL) as a way of locating information on the World-Wide Web.
Many products have been developed which assist the user in searching the web for information. Access to the World-Wide Web can be accomplished very inexpensively using a phone line, an inexpensive computer and a software program called a web browser such as Netscape's Navigator (.TM.) or IBM's Web Explorer (.TM.). This ability to inexpensively connect into the World-Wide Web has encouraged its use for much more than business purposes. The World-Wide Web is used for educational research, shopping, games, making reservations, trading stock and numerous other purposes. Children, as well as adults, are frequent users of the World-Wide Web.
While it was the advent of two-dimensional, graphically intense Web sites that spurred the popularity of the Internet, the next wave of technology will bring new interfaces to Internets, intranets and networks in general. These new interfaces will enable a more sensual interaction between the user and the content provided by the Web site. In particular, when a user interacts with the site, he can be immersed in a three-dimensional rendering of the site's information. This immersion might include audio cues or the ability to interact with other users. Collectively, these immersive interfaces are referred to as Virtual Reality, which provides a user-centric view of Web site content.
While Virtual Reality is still in its infancy, it traditionally uses computer simulations containing three-dimensional (3D) graphics and devices to allow the user to interact with the simulation. Much of what the user has been able to browse as "data" on the web may be able to be experienced as 3D Web sites in the future. Such Web sites are constructed with a Virtual Reality Modeling Language, herein referred to as VRML, which allows for the design and implementation of platform-independent scene descriptions. VRML is a file format for describing interactive 3D objects and worlds to be experienced on the World-Wide Web utilizing HTTP (A HyperText Transfer Protocol used on the Internet) in its implementation.
In today's virtual reality environments when a user enters a virtual world they take on a character persona known as the user's avatar. While the user is present in the world the user sees through the eyes of the avatar as they communicate with other avatars. The user can also signal the avatar to execute a range of emotions or actions that are viewable by any avatars looking in the user's direction. As the user signals the avatar to change emotion or execute a gesture a few problems arise:
1. the user cannot see the change in his own avatar's state; for example a smile or frown; PA1 2. the user may not be able to see the reaction to his avatar's action or emotion among other avatars due to his close proximity to a single avatar; and PA1 3. if the avatar's head moves sharply during a gesture (such as a nod) and this is faithfully reproduced to the user, the user may find the panning of the display disconcerting.
Current avatar implementations solve some of these problems by offering a manual selection for third-person perspective. This allows the user to traverse the virtual world while maintaining a third-person view or perspective of their avatar's facial and body positions. However, traveling in a virtual world with such a perspective destroys some of the benefits of participating in a virtual environment. Such a continual third-person perspective limits the user's ability to immerse themself in their virtual world. In this regard, today's avatar implementations require a user to manually select their avatar's perspective in advance and, thus, tradeoff first-person immersion in the world for viewing their avatar's gestures and actions instead.